IMHO, many advances these days help us be better human beings, but I sure hope those advances never replace the basic definitions of what it means TO BE a human being. I think our goal should be to make our environment harmonize with who we are and want to be, and not to harmonize ourselves with what our enviroment is and what it wants us to be.

The bigger question I have, and indeed, the one raised in the Postman article as well, is whether or not we need new information to help us become better humans or citizens (this requires a subjective analysis, I know). Take this into consideration, though: Could I be a better friend or neighbor, a more committed or loyal spouse, a more thoughtful voter, or could a someone become more selfless or altruistic (and continue to become so) without new information changing the culture in which we interact or the ways we interact? I believe they could. For example, Facebook has allowed me to have a more accessable network through which I can communicate with other people, but does it necessarily make me a better friend? In fact, maybe it makes me a more ambivalent friend because I use a less-personal means of communication than I used to. I argue that while information can empower us, and help us or cause us to change in myriad ways, we should realize that to improve our lives in some of the most essential areas, especially in how we relate to one another as humans, we may not require new information at all, but rather we could look to what our ancestors did before many of the technological advances we have today: they spent a lot more time together in groups, building tightly woven communities, and their hearts were put at ease by simpler pleasures.

Personally, I doubt it. I think the fractal, ever-expanding web of humanity’s information – of media, of science, and of the daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment conversations we are having with one another – is driving all of us into an ever more diverse rethinking and reshaping of our identities and our goals for our lives. Thus our evolving culture bootstraps the persistent generation of new knowledge.

Additionally, you I think this New York Times article might be interesting to readers of this post. It’s about the recent auction of the Magna Carta and lightly explores the theme of “Information is now cheaper than ever and also more expensive.”